India imposes higher customs duty in 28 US products

New Delhi: As many as 28 US products, including almond, pulses and walnut, will attract higher customs duties from Sunday, according to a government notification. The move will hurt American exporters of these 28 items as they will have to pay higher duties, making those items costlier in the Indian market.

Amending its June 30, 2017, notification, the Central Board of Indirect taxes and Customs (CBIC) said Saturday's notification will "implement the imposition of retaliatory duties on 28 specified goods originating in or exported from USA and preserving the existing MFN rate for all these goods for all countries other than USA".

Earlier the list included 29 goods but India has removed artemia, a kind of shrimp, from the list.

The country would get about USD 217 million additional revenue from such imports.

The government had on June 21, 2018 decided to impose these duties in retaliation to the US decision of significantly hiking customs duties on certain steel and aluminium products.

In fact, segment leaders like Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors and Hero MotoCorp have reported de-growth of 34.3 per cent, 45 per cent and 20 per cent, respectively giving a clear indication of a prolonged slowdown in the sector.